1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which is provided with a fingerprint verification function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Owing to the development of network society, the fusion of information processing apparatuses and networks has progressed and the necessity of security functions such as individual verification has increased. With respect to individual verification, attention is being given to authentication by living body information such as a fingerprint, which makes an information processing apparatus hard to be abused by others and cannot be lost unlike keys or IC (integrated circuit) cards. With respect to systems of reading a fingerprint, one that uses optics such as a prism is dominant, which is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 8-315143 (1996). On the other hand, another technique is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 9-186312 (1997) in which a photodiode is placed to be adjacent to a TFT (thin-film transistor) element of a liquid crystal display device so as to work as a CCD (charge-coupled device) to read out an image. Moreover, still another technique is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 7-220075 (1995) and JP-A 10-154231 (1998) which technique relates to a system of identifying individuals by fingerprints. In addition, yet another technique which relates to control of the operation of an information processing apparatus based on a fingerprint verification result is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 10-69324 (1998).
FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a prior art information processing apparatus 1 which is provided with a fingerprint verification function. Moreover, FIGS. 25A and 25B are views showing a fingerprint reading unit 4 and a display unit 7 which are comprised by the information processing apparatus 1. To a central processing unit 2 of the information processing apparatus 1, a fingerprint data sensing control unit 3 for controlling the fingerprint reading unit 4, a key input unit 5 such as a keyboard, a display control unit 6 for controlling the display unit 7 such as a liquid crystal display device, a storage unit 8 implemented by a nonvolatile memory, an input/output unit 9 used for connection to a network and connection to a peripheral equipment such as a printer, and a storage unit 10 are connected, whereby the operation of the overall apparatus is integrally controlled.
A user's registered data is stored in the storage unit 8, and when being required, is read out and transferred to the storage unit 10 to be stored therein by the central processing unit 2. Although an application program is also stored in the storage unit 8, and when being required, is read out and transferred to the storage unit 10 to be stored therein by the central processing unit 2, the program may be previously stored in the storage unit 10.
The fingerprint reading unit 4 is implemented by the system in which optics disclosed in JP-A 8-315143 and the technique disclosed in JP-A 9-186312 as mentioned above. A fingerprint read by the fingerprint reading unit 4 is temporarily stored in a fingerprint data storage section 21 of the fingerprint data sensing control unit 3, and thereafter supplied to the storage unit 10.
The storage unit 10 includes a program work memory 11 which is composed of a fingerprint verification section 12 including a fingerprint data feature extracting section 13 and a feature data verifying section 14, a registered user's fingerprint reading-out/storing section 15 including a data reading-out section 16 and a data storing section 17, and an application program storing section 18.
In the prior art information processing apparatus 1, as shown in FIG. 25A, the fingerprint reading unit 4 and a display screen 19 of the display unit 7 are separately disposed. Otherwise, as shown in FIG. 25B, a fingerprint reading screen 20 of the fingerprint reading unit 4 and the display screen 19 of the display unit 7 are separately disposed. Therefore, control of the operation of the information processing apparatus 1 by using coordinates related to fingerprint reading is not performed.